Angels, Searching for a Place called Home
by pika318
Summary: With their home planet ravaged by a highly fatal disease, humans have gathered on that planet's moon, working together to find a cure. A collection of stories about their lives, and how they became angels.
1. Fighting is a Part of Friendship

**Moko-Chan** : Actually I've been intending to write such a fic since the publication of vol 13. Just that with the slew of new information in the newer volumes, I had to keep rethinking my ideas over and over again.

So I guess this is the level that would do the original novel justice (and make the fan translation goddess happy =_=)  
Oh yes, this will be a multi-chapter fic of a bunch of related short stories…yah, I've seem to write one for every fandom that I write fanfics for.

 **pika318** : A certain fan translation goddess is very happy haha. Anyway, this is very spoilery if you haven't read through volume 15 (even I have not read it yet), but for those who already know about the angels' story, hope you guys enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Fighting is part of Friendship**

* * *

This story took place many centuries ago, way before Japan was a recognised civilisation and during the time when humans that lived in Ente Isla just discovered that a certain material dug up from the ground can be made into useful tools.

The location was at a place light years away from either above mentioned places. Another planet that no longer exists due to the cumulative factors of bad luck, greed and despair. On this planet's moon was a small city, a base for the residents of that city to work together to find a cure for the deadly disease that was ravaging the planet before it ceased to exist.

In that city, in a certain research lab, in a certain recreational room….

"...who is that?"

A large muscular man spoke in an irritated manner. He stood with his arms crossed as he stared at the smaller built man who he did not know, wearing a black singlet and track pants punching a punching bag a few metres away from him. The larger man himself was wearing a white singlet and military cargo pants. As he said that, he turned around to look at his subordinates, who were wearing similar clothing, as if they had the answer.

"No idea boss…"

One of the subordinates muttered, scratching his head.

"Oh, I think I know who that is… that guy's from the research team."

Another subordinate said, snapping his fingers as he recalled the information.

"Haa?! What's a research team…"

The smaller man suddenly stopped punching the bag. After using both hands to hold the bag to stop it from swinging around from the momentum, he turned to the group of people who were dressed in military attire.

"Yo! Isn't it the security team? You're Gabriel aren't you?"

The man who seemed to be in charge of the entire group frowned as he was spoken to in such a familiar manner.

"Yes… aren't you from the research department?"

"Yes I am. I'm Sataniel Noi. Nice to meet you." The man called Sataniel continued speaking in a cheerful manner.

"What's someone from the research group doing here?" Gabriel asked in an unfriendly manner.

Sataniel seemed to freeze for a few seconds, then he looked around the room quickly before replying as such.

"I can't be here? I don't remember any signs saying that the recreational rooms were segregated according to our departments."

"Well, there isn't… but those equipment are for us to use only, get it?"

Though such a rule had never been written, usually only the security team used this particular recreation room, as it was the only one with exercise equipment and even a boxing ring, to train or just to release their stress. Other departments like the research department, medical department, legal department and so on stuck to the other recreational rooms that had couches, some books and snacks. Therefore, it was expected that the security team acted as though they owned the place.

"Not really. Like I said, it's not as though there are any signs speaking about such a rule."

"You…!" Gabriel was at a loss of words. Most people would have felt threatened by this time, given that the security was full of men who have been trained to take down any tough enemies that stood in the way.

"Hey, Noi, if you don't get out…!" One of Gabriel's subordinates started speaking in a threatening tone, he stepped forward, starting to raise one of his arms.

"Then what? You're going to make me regret it by trashing the shit out of me?" Sataniel finished the threatening line with a light hearted smile.

"Don't say words you'll regret later." Gabriel growled.

"Then how about I take you on, Gabriel?"

Gabriel was taken aback by that statement. In his mind, he was wondering if the other party had worked too hard to the point that his sense of danger and self-preservation got thrown out of the window.

"Are you joking?" Gabriel managed to say with a mocking smile.

"Oh, I'm dead serious. If I win, I get to come here whenever I want and you all can't say a thing about it. If you win, I won't come here again…"

"Well, that doesn't sound that worthwhile, I could get into trouble for beating another staff…"

"And I'll treat your entire team to a round of drinks."

* * *

 _Why me?_

Those were the thoughts going through Gabriel's head the moment he stood on the boxing ring. Both he and Sataniel had put on padded head gear to protect themselves from any severe head injuries.

 _I guess I'll just quickly knock him out of the ring. The rest of us still need people like him to save the world._

"You can't be thinking of going easy on me right?"

 _?!_

"Oh come on, this won't be fun if you don't go all out!" Sataniel said loudly.

Gabriel eyed the other party who was smirking arrogantly.

"...what's with that confidence? If you dare use any magic…"

Sataniel waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry, I won't stoop that low."

"..."

"And don't look down on people. If you do…"

Sataniel took on a ready pose.

"You'll get crushed."

* * *

Two minutes later.

Gabriel was pinned to the ground on his stomach. He could not even muster enough strength to break free from Sataniel and in a blink of an eye, the down count of ten seconds passed.

"... and down for ten seconds. That means you lost, Gabriel."

The pressure on Gabriel's shoulder and elbow joint was released and Gabriel flipped around.

"...!"

The rest of the audience, comprising of only the security team, stood in shock, staring with their mouths agape.

"Eh, no applause for me?" Sataniel looked at the security team with a mock hurt look.

"You… you must have used…" one of the security team members started saying, trying to find a reason for his superior's loss. Gabriel had never lost to anyone in a hand to hand fight before.

"No, this bastard didn't use any magic. It's pure skill." Gabriel stood up with a bitter look. He looked at Sataniel who was still grinning widely.

"...it's my complete loss, Sataniel. It's almost embarrassing for me to be in this position given that I lost to someone from the research team."

"What are talking about? There's no one more deserving of that position than you. Unlike you, I can't give anyone a sense of peace."

"?" Gabriel eyes widened as a sudden praise was thrown in his direction.

"I may be stronger than you, but I don't have the ability to protect anyone. Last year, during that hostage incident, you took a shot just to protect this young lady right?"

"Ah that incident…"

"The bullet almost struck you in the heart."

"Well, I survived in the end."

"Yeah, you have that kind of courage to protect others which I do not have. Therefore, everyone feels at peace when you are around."

"..."

After a moment of awkward silence, Gabriel started laughing.

"...you have a very glib tongue, did you know that?" Gabriel said with a smile.

"Of course I do. It's my greatest skill." Sataniel replied, clearly sounding very pleased with himself.

"Alright alright. You win. We'll keep up our end of the deal….Ah wait, that's too stingy, how about I treat you to a round of drinks as well?"

* * *

"...You still insisted on treating us, Sataniel…" Gabriel muttered as he sat at the bar counter. The bar that they were in was part of the research facility. When the plan to do their disease cure research on the moon unfolded, the people in charge of building the facility thought it was a good idea to make it as self-sufficient as possible and amenities for entertainment were included.

"Just treat it as a reward for working so hard."

"You guys are working pretty hard too."

"Are we?~" Sataniel asked a rhetorical question. With a sigh, he drank a mouthful of beer and continued talking.

"We reached a real slump. Our research has hit a dead end and the only things we're doing is going back to our old work and seeing if we missed anything out."

"...Even if you tell me this, I don't have the brains to help out." Gabriel commented, shrugging.

"Anyway," Gabriel took a drink as well before he continued speaking.

"We're all working as hard as we can so that we can get out this mess and go home."

"...Anyone waiting for you back home?" Sataniel suddenly asked.

"No." Came the curt reply.

"Really, no one at all?!"

"Nope. Even if there was someone, I would have broke up with her already. This isn't exactly a job where you can maintain a long distance relationship. Besides..."

"It's not as though she will be able to come here with you right?"

"Yeah."

"Sigh...Had that issue. The girl I was dating went psycho when I told her that I had to come here to do research. She accused me of leaving her to die on a diseased planet."

"..."

The two men sat in silence as it dawned to them how bleak their future seemed to be.

"Damn it! Is it so hard to just fulfil a simple wish of settling down and starting a family?!"

"Sit down. You're drunk."

Sataniel had stood up with his beer mug raised and started shouting some nonsense that might have reflected one of his desires. And Gabriel had, almost immediately, responded in a deadpan manner.

"I want to have a cute wife and cute children!"

"I want to eat my mother's cooking."

"I want to open a bakery, damn it!"

This triggered the start of a bunch of drunk men shouting their lungs out about what they really wanted. Gabriel could only sit at the bar counter and start wondering how many reports he had to write to explain his subordinates' behavior.

* * *

After waking up late due to a hangover, a frazzled Sataniel ran to the main research department's lab and opened the door. As expected, everyone who was supposed to be there was there.

"Good morning everyone!"

"You're late!" That voice came from a petite female scientist who had a cold stern look etched on her face most of the times. The other lab members just glanced at him, shook their heads or sighed before going back to whatever they were doing.

Sataniel mouthed an apology and from the corner of his eye, happened to see one of members of the medical team covering her mouth, as though trying to stifle her laughter. She seemed to quickly compose herself and swiftly made her way out of the lab.

"So…" Sataniel started saying, about to ask what he had missed.

The petite female walked up to him and shoved a stack of documents in front of his face so quickly, he thought she was going to slap him in the face with them.

"Read this. There will be two interns sent from back home in two weeks. Keep them up to date."

"No problem, Ignora."

"It's Profess… oh whatever."

Sataniel gave a small smile as he watched Ignora storm back to her desk. He then returned to his own desk to read the files.

* * *

 **Moko-Chan** : Eh, Gabriel sounds like such a stoic person in this story…Years of having nothing to do mellowed him out?

 **pika318:** How about Gabriel adopted Sataniel's personality after Sataniel died, so he wouldn't go insane from all the screw ups which happened in Heaven?


	2. Sickness and Stagnation

**Chapter 2: Sickness and Stagnation**

* * *

"Alright, I'm going to put a drip into you now. Please stay still, Mrs Faida…."

This took place in a white room isolated from the main part of the research facility. There were only two people in the room now. One was a female medical practitioner by the name of Lailah, the other was a middle-aged woman whom she addressed as Mrs Faida. Lailah was wearing a hazmat suit with head gear that encompassed her entire head and neck. The transparent face shield made it possible for her to see what she was doing. She was also wearing slightly thick gloves that should have made it difficult for her to handle the needle, but she was used to it already.

The middle-aged lady was lying in a cradle like pod, propped up slightly with a pillow. If this was a few thousand years ago, she would have been hooked up to multiple devices to monitor her vital signs but fortunately for her, that pod could do all of this without much invasion.

"I'm staying still, dear." Mrs Faida said with a weak voice. This woman and many others residing in such a place and lying in a pod in a weakened state were all patients. To be more accurate, they were test subjects who have been infected with a deadly disease that had caused an epidemic in their home planet. Depending on which organs were affected, the symptoms varied. If it affected the nervous system, the person slowly becomes paralysed, if it attacked the muscles, the muscles broke down, if it attacked the circulatory system, the person either starts clotting on the insides or bleeding out. The virus was highly contagious as it was transmitted through the air. What was worse was that not all infected people show symptoms, so perfectly healthy looking people could go about their daily lives spreading the virus. The only way to confirm that a person caught the virus was by either showing the symptoms or through a blood test.

In this so-called sick ward, the patients were kept alive for as long as possible with a cocktail of anti-infectives like anti-virals and with some magic to keep their energy up. The only thing the medical practitioners could do for now was to give the patients these medications and inject nutrients into them.

After swabbing Mrs Faida's arm with some alcohol, Lailah quickly inserted the needle. She then turned the tap for the drip on after ensuring that the needle was securely in place.

"Dear…"

"Yes?"

"How is the research going?"

Lailah seemed to freeze for a short moment when she heard that question, but she quickly regained her composure and replied as gently as she can.

"The Scientists are working as hard as they can, so just hang on until then alright?"

"Alright…" With that, Mrs Faida did not say anymore. Lailah quickly walked out of the room before any more questions could be asked. After closing the door, Lailah stood outside the room and just stared at the hustle and bustle of other Nurses, Doctors and Pharmacists who were just rushing around, delivering medicines, getting calls and so on.

She knew that the research team's work had slowed down a lot. They were not making any progress and different organisations and governments from their home planet were piling stress on them.

 _Just how long more are we stuck here…..?_

Even the medical personnel were feeling the strain already. Every single day, at least one patient will die and at least five others would ask how long more they had to stay here. Once, their patients managed to catch sight of the negative news that their home planet was facing an apocalypse and there was no hope left. Several of the patients lost it, two of them killed themselves with the needle that was embedded in their arm while another three turned violent. One of the violent ones even tried to harm the poor medical personnel who happened to be in his room and security had to be called in.

Just as she was lost in her thoughts…

[ _Code red, code red. Any medical personnel on cleanup duty today please head to room number 103. I repeat…]_

The announcement repeated the same statement about two more times before cutting off.

"Hey, you're on cleanup too right?"

A tired male voice came from behind Lailah. She turned to see a pale and exhausted looking man who she had never seen before. The man was pushing a large trolley that had a covered metal tub that was large enough to fit a person. Below the metal tub were a few cabinets containing other chemicals.

Lailah gave an awkward smile as she pointed on the red armband around her upper arm. It formed a stark contrast against their green hazmat suit.

"Alright. Me too...again. Let's go." The man replied, then he pushed the trolley past Lailah.

The "cleanup" actually referred to the disposal of a dead patient who had been infected by the virus. The medical personnel took turns doing the cleanup in pairs just so that do not have to face the tragic scene too often. But given that there was at least one dead patient everyday, it didn't make a difference.

Inside room 103, there was a corpse that used to be a patient lying on the pod. It looked like it been dipped in oil and set on fire. Sloughed skin piled up beside the body and there was blood pooled in certain areas such as the upper arms and the sides. Looking at all the flat lines of the screens displaying the patient's vital signs confirmed that the patient was very much dead.

There were two other medical staff in the room. One was a nurse who looked like he was about to faint, the other a doctor whom Lailah worked a few times with. As he did not come from the same nation that Lailah was from, she did not know him very well.

"Time of death was ten minutes ago. Extreme symptoms started this morning and it developed to a combination of toxic epidermal necrosis plus hemorrhaging. This poor soul didn't even stand a chance." The doctor said with a thick accent.

"Uu-" Lailah let out a small groan as she looked at the corpse. The man she was with looked at the white band containing the details of the patient and scanned it.

"Mara Hidael, thirty six years old. I remember that he was part of security team B." The man muttered.

"He was the one who took down one of the violent patients two weeks back. That patient….managed to tear his head protection off and he was diagnosed to be positive with the virus a day later." Lailah continued saying with the details of the incident.

The security personnel then volunteered to become a test subject for the project. In truth, it was supposed to be difficult to take the hazmat suit apart, but Mara was in such a hurry to get rid of the security threat such that he did not ensure that the suit was on properly.

"Wasn't there another security personnel who came in a week later? Another mad patient."

"Ah…. he wasn't shown any signs of infection as of yet… but we placed him in quarantine just in case."

Lailah answered her partner while looking uneasily at the doctor and the nurse who seemed to be wondering why they were still standing around and talking about unimportant things.

"We'll start the cleanup now. Can you two please leave?" Lailah's partner said. The doctor and the nurse nodded slightly and hastily made their way out of the room.

"Lailah, help me lift the body into the tank…I'll settle the rest later, you can sanitise the place."

"Ok…"

Lailah walked to the end of the pod and wrapped her arms around the corpse's knees while her partner slipped his arms under the corpse's underarms. As they lifted the body from the pod, pieces of skin fell from under the body's clothes onto the pod.

"Ugh…"

"Just haul him into the tank… we'll pick up the rest later…"

"Sure…" Lailah muttered under her breath.

Once the body of the former security personnel was safely in the tank, the two started picking up whatever bits they could and putting them in the tank. Once they were done, Lailah's partner closed the tank and did a simple check for leaks. At the same time, Lailah started pulling out various cleaning agents from the cabinets attached to the lower part of the trolley.

"... you seem tired, how about I clean the mess and you push him to his final rites?"

Lailah glanced at the man who was really asking out of genuine concern.

"It's fine. I don't like disposing of the bodies even more."

"Sure. If you're done before I'm back, just leave the stuff outside the room, I'll pick them up later." With that, the man quickly pushed the trolley out of the room.

The man was heading for the place which the other medical personnel termed as "Final Rites". However, rather than being a place where the dead person was laid to rest with prayers, it was really a place where they disposed of the corpse in a sanitary manner.

After the patients died, they were to be sent back to the home planet. However, as it was impractical to send multiple bodies back through space due to the amount of space they took up and cremation was difficult in such a closed environment, the bodies were placed in a tank of highly caustic liquid developed from the enzymes of a certain arachnid's saliva where every bit of them would be dissolved. Then the liquid would be drained into a tightly sealed urn which would not even break when thrown from a height. The urns were then sent back to their home planet labelled with the corpse's name and whatever belongings the corpse had when it was alive.

 _How unpleasant._

Lailah thought to herself as she started cleaning the place.

* * *

After the entire room was wiped down, Lailah left the cleaning supplies outside the door as instructed and she went to do her second last duty for the day.

She changed out of the hazmat suit she used in the sick room and replaced it with a clean one for the quarantine area.

Then she took a tray of medical tools and headed for the quarantine room she was assigned to. After reaching the room, she knocked on the door.

"I'm coming in."

"Sure-" Came the bored voice of a man from the other side of the door.

Lailah walked in and sitting there was the "other security personnel who was sent to the quarantine room because of the violent attack last week."

The other party was a large muscular man. He was sitting on the edge of a normal looking bed and looking as though he had been forced to watch paint dry on the wall.

"Oh, it's you again, Lailah."

"Hi, Gabriel."

The two had known each other prior to the whole epidemic outbreak. They had studied in the same high school and then went on to the same college before coincidentally being sent on the same mission. Therefore, they were on first name basis.

"... so how long more am I stuck here?" Gabriel asked as Lailah started wrapping a tourniquet around his upper left arm.

"You'll probably be out tomorrow if nothing goes wrong. Do you feel unwell in any way?"

"Aside from utter boredom, I feel perfectly fine. If I had to say, this is the best rest I had in a week. Though I would enjoy it better if it wasn't for the bland food."

"Count yourself lucky Gabriel. I'm going to put the needle in." Lailah commented bluntly as she quickly injected some local anaesthetic into the other party's lower arm before sticking a larger needle in. The needle for connected to a tuble.

"Clench your fists a few times." Lailah instructed. Gabriel did so and blood started flowing slowly into the glass tube.

"Did something happen?" Gabriel asked.

"It's written all over your face." As Gabriel said that, he raised his right finger and drew circles in the air in front of Lailah's hazmat mask.

"Who died?"

"...Mara Hidael."

"...Oh. I didn't know him that well but he seems to be the second in command for Team B. We all got a long lecture after what happened to him…"

At this point of time, the blood collection was done. Lailah removed the glass tube and needle. She labelled the glass tube and put it in a clear bag that had the words "BIOHAZARD" printed on it.

"...which is why I said you got lucky. If he knew how to do that binding spell that you did, maybe he would be alive today."

When Gabriel went to handle a violent patient the previous week, he did not even come into contact with the patient because just as the patient lunged at him, he used a spell that immobilised the patient, ensuring that no harm came to both parties.

"Speaking of which, I was surprised you were able to do that. It takes quite a bit of skill to stop a moving target and then keep them paralysed that quickly." Lailah suddenly said, her voice in disbelief.

"Are you looking down on me….?"

"I thought you weren't that good with spells. Especially not such a spell that is hard to master."

"A certain idiot taught me a short cut. Let's just keep it at that."

Lailah wanted to ask who exactly was the "idiot" and why an "idiot" would be able to teach a musclehead like Gabriel an advanced spell but she decided to leave that topic alone for now.

"Alright...then I'll be going now. I'll be sending your blood to the research department. If they say it's negative, you can leave." Lailah said as she pushed the trolley out.

"I'll be waiting~~~" Came the lazy drawl.

* * *

 _Finally I can get out of this thing_.

After wearing the hazmat suit for several hours, Lailah felt that her body became very light after removing it. She put the blood sample into a metal box, ran it under UV light and then placed it in a trolley with other medicines that the research team needed to use. And finally, she could leave the sick ward.

On the way to the main lab of the research facility, she met up with a familiar face. The other person greeted her cheerfully.

"Good evening Lailah, thanks for the hard work!" The man who greeted her had a few files clamped under his arm and was reading another one which was in his hand.

Lailah could feel a slight blush rising up her face when the man spoke to her but she maintained her composure.

"Good evening Professor Noi. Busy as always huh?"

"Still as formal as usual…Two new faces are coming in tomorrow so I'm just reviewing the previous work." The man waved the file he was holding as he said that.

"Oh I see."

"I sure hope those newbies would break the stagnation."

"I hope so too."

"Anyway, I'm going to go get a snack. See you around." With another wave, the man headed in the opposite direction Lailah was headed to. Lailah waved weakly before proceeding to the labs.

In the next few days, many things happened at the same time. Gabriel managed to go back to work, the two new young interns arrived, the researched progressed and finally….

A cure was found.

* * *

 **Moko-chan:** Ok. Another chapter done. I feel sad when I write all these spoilery fics….people who only watch the anime won't read them.

 **pika318:** True, those who have not caught up to the latest volume won't read this either. But the small number who do want to read this, thank you for reading and hope you can leave a nice review.


	3. Suspicion

**Moko-chan** : Well erhm, somehow I wanted to write about Kamael first but it was a bit difficult so I'm avoiding that for now. haha…. (Edited because pika318 pointed out some details in vol 15 that I missed out.)

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Suspicion**

* * *

 _Ah, what beauty, what grace._

A lone man stared into the distance as he turned a corner. He was planning to make his way somewhere else but that intention had been completely forgotten as he laid eyes on what he would consider true beauty.

 _That form, that luscious hair. Can she be considered my goddess? Maybe, not yet, she's almost there._

He started making his way closer to his target, ever careful to be sure that he walked in the most gentlemanly way possible. His target seemed to notice him. She turned to face him and seemed to have a perplexed expression on her face.

 _Those features, that delicateness, it's more beautiful than I imagined._

And then he made his move.

The man grabbed his target's hands and ignoring the surprised squeak from his target, he started speaking.

"In an accursed place such as this, I have thought there was nothing but a bleak future before my eyes. But you, you appeared before me. Someone to cleanse the shadows of my soul, someone to bring light into my life! THIS MUST BE FATE!"

The target's face turned bright red and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, each time trying to get a word out but stopped short as though she was so befuddled by the situation that she could not even put a proper sentence together to protest against such a treatment.

"If it's not too much trouble, I must insist that you join me fo…owch!"

Suddenly a hand that did not belong to either party came down on the head of the man who continued to spout nonsense that his target did not understand.

"Sariel…leave her alone already…"

The short man called Sariel clutched the top of his head in pain, finally releasing his target, and with tears in his eyes, he wheeled around to face his attacker.

"Sataniel! What do you think you are doing?! You're interrupting…!"

Sariel raised his fists in protest but he got ignored. The one called Sataniel turned his head to the young woman.

"Abigail, you better go. I have something I need to speak to Sariel about."

Abigail gave a confused nod, still trying to understand what just happened in the past five minutes. Then she quickly walked off, leaving the two men alone in the corridor of the medical wing.

"How dare you, Sataniel?! Are you getting in the way of my eternal happiness?!" Sariel demanded, glaring at the taller party.

"Seriously, first Lailah, then Cassie and now Abigail. I thought you learnt your lesson when Cassie, despite being well known for her patience, threatened you with a scalpel." Sataniel said with an eyebrow raised.

"Ah, I underestimated her. Lailah was gentler but she rejected me brutally."

"By saying she was not into shorter men."

"How did you know that?"

"She told me."

"Wha…life is so unfair. Why do all the tall guys get the luck?!" Sariel bowed his head, dejected.

Then with a shrug, he spoke and declared his next course of action.

"I must say that I am more interested in these medical angels, but it seems like most of them are not interested in finding romance."

"Who would be at this kind of time?" Sataniel rebuked immediately.

It was already surprising that someone like Sariel had also realised the dire straits that they were in but unlike other people who have experienced such a situation, he still decided to continue with his flirtatious actions. Perhaps for him, it was a form of relaxation.

"I should try one of the beauties from the research department. There are beautiful girls as well aren't there?"

"Seriously, Sariel…" Sataniel started shaking his head.

"Ignora is admittedly beautiful despite that icy demeanour of hers….and I don't think she will reject me the same way as Lailah…." Sariel grinned in a lecherous manner as he thought about the head of the research department.

"Don't you dare."

"Huh?" Sariel's smile slid from his face as he thought he heard the other man mutter something.

Sataniel turned his face away, looking embarrassed.

"Nothing. Enough with the idle chatter. I need your help."

Sataniel's serious look was enough to dissipate all kinds of snarky remarks that were going through Sariel's mind.

"Alright, alright. So what do you want?" Sariel asked, resigned.

Sataniel passed Sariel a large thin envelope.

"I need you to check up on those two kids that you brought in."

"Huh? Why, what's wrong with Kael and Shakeena?" Sariel raised an eyebrow, looking doubtful as he took the envelope.

Kael and Shakeena were the two young interns sent from their home planet to help out with the research on the cure for the disease outbreak ravaging their home.

"Something. Anyway, you're the one who brought them in and took care of them for a while, I'm sure this should be a walk in the park for you."

"I brought them in under orders. What's with this sudden nonsense?! Though I don't know the details, Ignora said that if not for those kids, your research wouldn't have made such breakthrough!" Sariel gripped the envelope tightly, causing it to crumple.

"I'm fully aware of that." Sataniel nodded, his arms crossed.

"In fact, it's not much of a stretch to say that they saved us! Why do you want to do this?"

"Don't you think it's strange that interns, barely fresh out of college, are asked to take on such an important research and they happen to be highly knowledgeable in gene research and gene therapy?"

"Don't tell me you are jealous…"

"I am not jealous. I just find it very odd that they have knowledge on gene therapy for non-genetic illnesses which only had two small scale studies and no meta-analysis." Sataniel retorted angrily.

Sariel gave a blank look as Sataniel started saying technical terms which sounded like a foreign language to him.

"I have a Bachelors in Law, not a PhD in medical genetics."

Sataniel stared at Sariel for a moment, let out a tired sigh and continued talking.

"I am fully supportive of them but I get this feeling that there's more to then that meets the eye. It's as though they were sent here just to lead us in the correct direction."

"And that's a bad thing….in what way?"

"It's not. Not for now at least. I just don't like the feeling that we are just like puppets being pulled along by them."

"..."

"My instincts could be wrong but there is really something off about them. They are so close to Ignora and I keep thinking of the worst-case scenario. And that recent incident isn't helping at all…."

"Okay….?" Sariel tilted his head trying to make sense of what Sataniel was saying.

"It sends chills down my spine just imagining that they might manipulate Ignora, she's never been careful when it comes to handling other people…"

"Sataniel…. It's alright. I understand." Sariel walked closer to the other man and patted him on the shoulder.

"What?"

"There's no harm in me looking this up and if I don't do this…"

"?"

"You'll probably lose sleep worrying about Ignora every single night."

"Wha… what?!" Sataniel sputtered. For the first time in a long while, his calm facade was broken.

"Sataniel. I can tell when a man is in love." Sariel grinned again.

"I am not in-"

"Though I never imagined that someone as easy going as you would have feelings for someone who seems emotionally constipated"

Sariel cut off Sataniel's chance to retort mercilessly.

"Sariel, if you don't shu-"

"Yes yes, I get it. You are not in love but you are just showing your utmost concern and care for her because if any harm came to her, you won't be able to live with yourself."

"I swear I'm going to get angry if you don't stop talking."

"I'm giving up on Ignora."

"SARIEL!"

"Though I can't say that I'm too fond of doing things like this, I'll see what I can find out." Sariel tucked the envelope under his arm with a sly smile as he watched Sataniel regain his composure.

"...I'm counting on you. Thank you."

"You're wel-"

The polite pleasantries were then interrupted by an angry shout.

"SARIEL!"

The two jumped at the sudden loud voice. The owner of the voice, a tall and lanky man with a weird explosive Afro hairstyle, skidded in the corridor the two were in. He was panting and he gave a glare at Sariel that made it seem like he wanted bloody murder.

"Where the hell were you?! Skiving from your work?!" The man took two quick steps to Sariel and grabbed the smaller man's collar.

"Raguel! Fancy seeing you here…." Sariel gave a weak laugh. The laugh was then followed by a squeak as Raguel started dragging him off.

"You told me you were on break and you disappeared for two hours, do you know how much paper work there is…."

Raguel started grumbling but after taking a few steps, he still turned his head to give Sataniel a brief wave.

"You done with him?" Raguel jabbed a finger at Sariel.

"...yes?"

Raguel gave a nod when he heard Sataniel's confused reply before continuing his journey with Sariel as his baggage to their office.

Sataniel stood where he was, shocked by the abrupt closure of his conversation with Sariel, and watched as the other two left quietly.

* * *

A few days later, Sariel had dug out as much information as he can about the two interns. He never thought it would be so difficult just finding anything. After all, it was written on their resume which schools they went to, where else they have done an internship and it even had a home address.

With all the telephone transcripts and other information he could gather stuffed in an envelope, he briskly walked to the research department asking whoever he met on the way if they had seen his requestor.

"He should be at the canteen. I saw him buying food there a short while back."

Finally, someone had a more concrete response.

 _Augh, the canteen? At this time?_

Sariel let out a groan as he thought about how crowded the place was at this point of time. Giving other party a quick nod to show his acknowledgement, Sariel made for the canteen.

Just as he stepped through the double door opening of the canteen, an arm raised in front of his face.

"Your ID sir."

It was one of the security guards. From his tone, he sounded bored.

"Guh, forgot that you guys are here now." Sariel muttered in an annoyed manner.

"Can't help it, man. Increased security and all." The guard gave a nonchalant shrug.

Sariel dug out his ID and showed it to the guard. The guard took the ID, looked at Sariel and back at the ID again.

"You can go." The guard then returned the ID and motioned with his hands for Sariel to carry on walking.

"Thanks."

 _Where is he? Why must this place be so crowded?_

With some tiptoeing and small jumps, he finally caught sight of a group of about twenty scientists, easily recognisable by their white lab coats and multiple files placed on the table with their food, seated together. Flanking this group were some more security guards. One of the scientists there was Sataniel. A tall, lean man with glasses and neatly styled hair seemed to be having an agitated conversation with him.

As Sariel inched closer to the table, he could hear the conversation more clearly.

"…working so hard and those morons think it's wise to drag us back so they can claim rights to the discovery?!"

"I agree with you Kamael. Maybe hiding our results would be a good idea…." Sataniel said.

"Don't be naive. Even if we tried to hide it, there's someone among us who would leak it out."

"Yeah, who's there to trust anymore? Everyone's so stressed out to the point that we're trying to kill each other."

The scientists who were nearby listening nodded in agreement, muttering among themselves.

"Kamael, I heard that you got attacked by..."

One of the scientists started asking and then stopped himself as he glanced at the security guards standing around them.

Kamael shook his head, giving a look that clearly stated that he did not want to discuss anything. That was when he noticed Sariel standing behind Sataniel. Kamael shot Sataniel a glance and pointed behind him.

Sataniel turned his head.

"Oh hi, Sariel."

"Sataniel, a moment please." Sariel said, feeling awkward as the whole table of scientists seemed to be staring at him, with exception of Ignora, who he just noticed sitting in the corner with her nose buried in a thick book, with the interns were sitting opposite her, busy eating an unusually large amount of food.

"Sure." Sataniel stood up from his seat. One of the guards shifted uneasily. That guard looked at another guard, seemingly his superior, and asked.

"Should I go with them?"

The other guard waved his hand dismissively.

"It's fine. Sataniel can take care of himself."

"Thanks for that vote of confidence, Gabriel."

The guard waved his hand dismissively again.

Sariel then led Sataniel out of the busy cafeteria.

* * *

"It does not look good."

Sariel and Sataniel had managed to find a place in the research wing that had very little traffic. Sariel opened the envelope and passed the documents to Sataniel.

"Basically, I can't dig up anything about them. I called the school which they supposedly graduated from, the company which they supposedly worked with for a couple of weeks and the apartment they supposedly lived in. Nothing, zilch. No one knows them."

Sataniel's eyes widened and he started skimming through the documents.

"Well, that is strange indeed."

"Yes it is. Anyway, that contains the information of the people I managed to call. Perhaps it would better if you spoke to them yourself. There's no way for me to interrogate them fully for more information after all. Also, maybe you would also like to speak to this person." Sariel pointed at the last sheet of paper.

"Who's this?"

"He's supposedly the one who arranged for those two kids to come here. Maybe he knows a bit more."

"I see. Thanks a lot Sariel."

"You're welcome…sigh." Sariel suddenly sighed.

"Now what?

"It's just that...in dramas, when someone digs too deep into finding the truth, nothing good happens." Sariel gave a wry smile.

"I have to agree with that…it would be good if it turned out to be nothing serious."

"I hope so too. Good luck Sataniel."

"Thanks buddy."

* * *

 **Moko-chan** : In the midst of writing this chapter… I somehow realised how I can write the one about Kamael.

 **pika318:** Sariel teasing Sataniel is so funny. And poor Raguel, having to be Sariel's babysitter.


End file.
